Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – June 10, 2013
With a tropical storm approaching Raleigh last week, it seemed to reflect some of the storms inside the legislative building. Our House committees had long meetings on many bills, including the tax reform bill, and the fracking bill, while the full House debated the racial justice act repeal bill. All the while we were working on the House budget, which should be voted out by Thursday of this week.
Our budget, based on Senate Bill 402 – Appropriations Act of 2013, was being analyzed over the past two weeks in our appropriations subcommittees. In my case, that’s the Transportation Subcommittee. All the subcommittees finished their work in rare Friday meetings. The budget will be published over the weekend, debated in the full Appropriations Committee this Tuesday, and voted out of the House on Wednesday and Thursday. As the House budget has many differences with the Senate budget, there are sure to be conference committees to work out the differences.
In addition to the budget, we had one of the most important tax bills in decades. House Bill 998 – Tax Simplification and Reduction Act gives an income tax reduction to every North Carolina taxpayer. It replaces the three income tax rates of 7.75%, 7.0%, and 6.0% with a new flat rate of 5.9%. The standard deduction also doubles. So, a married couple filing jointly gets a $12,000 deduction, which is a huge tax cut for lower income taxpayers. The sales tax on some services is charged in cases where a retail business is already collecting sales taxes on products. For example, an auto repair shop which now collects sales tax on parts will also begin to collect it on labor. Overall, this should be a tax reduction for almost every working family. This is the House version of tax reform, and it is different from the Senate version. The final bill could be different.
Senate Bill 76 – Domestic Energy Jobs Act is the long-awaited bill about hydraulic extraction of shale gas or “fracking.” It has been thoroughly vetted in the Senate and the House. It contains many safeguards, rule-making deadlines, and reporting requirements that must be met before permits are issued. The General Assembly must give final approval to the permits, which will likely be no sooner than March 1, 2015. This bill passed the House 70 – 33 on Friday with many members absent.
Another controversial bill, Senate Bill 306 – Capital Punishment/Amendments, was heavily debated last Tuesday and Wednesday. This bill effectively repeals the former Racial Justice Act, which let death row inmates use statistics in other trials to get appeals in addition to the 15 years of appeals which they now have. It has nothing to do with guilt or innocence, as that has been well established by other juries and appeals. We heard all the old arguments, but the RJA was basically a moratorium on the death penalty in spite of all the denials by the opponents of SB 306. It passed by a final vote of 77 – 39.
Many other bills are progressing through the committee system. Senate Bill 81 – Charlotte Regional Airport Authority passed the House Transportation Committee last Tuesday. It turns the Charlotte-Douglas Airport over to a regional authority when it finally passes the House and is signed by the Governor. House Bill 268 – Sunset Beach/Dredging Maintenance Fee allows Sunset Beach to collect self-imposed fees by homeowners to do maintenance dredging in the canals behind their homes. This is something already allowed for Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach, as well as other towns. It passed the House 100 – 0 on Friday. Please follow these and other bills at www.ncleg.net.